Current breastpumping technologies require a pumping kit that functions as the milk collection interface to the mother from the vacuum generating breastpump. Currently, these kits are designed to be re-useable in that they can be disassembled, cleaned, and used for multiple pumping sessions.
In the hospital, mothers are provided with sterile kits for their personal use. Once a mother uses a kit, it is no longer sterile and it is generally incumbent upon the mother to clean the kit for subsequent uses. Cleaning typically involves hand washing, boiling, microsteaming, or placing in the dishwasher. In some cases the hospital may be involved in the cleaning process during the mother's stay, such as when autoclaving is employed. Hospitals may also provide sinks and cleaning agents for the mother's convenience. Cleaning practices vary widely from hospital to hospital and from mother to mother. Hospitals frequently provide mothers with disposable sterile bottles to pump into, but the kit, which most of the milk must pass through, is no longer sterile after the first use.
Improperly cleaned kits can easily become contaminated with undesirable microbes, mold, mildew, dirt, etc. For some hospitals and mothers it is desirable to have a freshly sterilized kit available for each pumping session, especially for hospitals with contaminated water supplies, and for high-risk infant patients such as those staying in the Neonatal Intensive Care Unit (NICU). In order to ensure that the pumping kits can only be used in their sterile form, it is desirable to provide a kit that ceases to function after the kit is used for the first time.
Separately, there are pumping mothers that would simply desire a hygienic, ready-to-use kit that would suffice for a single use where convenience outweighs the cost benefits of cleaning and using a re-usable kit. Cleaning facilities are not always available or practical.
Accordingly, it would be desirable to provide a breastpump assembly that only works during the first pumping session that the mother employs the assembly. Preferably, the kit (breastpump assembly and perhaps tubing and other collateral optional elements) would employ tamper resistant features that prevent the mother from bypassing the function that limits the single use. Additionally, the kit would preferably be able to be supplied in a sterile form as desired for hospital markets. Elements of the kit would not require the durability features required to meet the rigors of re-use conditions such as exposure to steam, boiling, and autoclaving.